Community Development Banking News
CDFI Banking: Industry, Policy, and Beyond.
The Washington Post covers the phenomenon of the #BankBlack movement taking hold across the country. The first black-owned bank to offer internet banking, CDBA Member OneUnited, was well positioned to take advantage of this wave with its mobile and online services, adding $6.7 million in deposits in the second half of 2016, according to FDIC records. As Teri Williams, OneUnited's President and Chief Operating Officer shares, "It reflects a change in the understanding of the power of our dollars and the fact that we need to use our money more purposefully."
Beneficial State Bank demonstrates their commitment to a triple bottom line of community, profit, and environmental sustainability at their recent art event, which brought together groups who on the surface appeared to have quite disparate interests.
Immediate Cuts to the US Treasury Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) will imperil economic propsects for millions in America's most distressed rural, urban and Native American communities.
Watch Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen praise the CDFI Fund in this video.
United Bank of Philadelphia has much to celebrate as they enter into their 25th year. Coinciding with their celebration, Fulton Financial Corporation announced an investment of $675,000, which represents an investment equal to approximately 19.86% of United's total capital on a pro forma basis. Fulton credits this investment due to United's deep involvement in the advancement of minority owned businesses in Philadelphia.
Community Bank of the Bay and its long time client, community nonprofit, Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) jointly announced today that through the generosity of one of the bank's founding shareholders, 10,000 shares of its common stock were donated to help establish the Larry Paradis Legacy Fund, named after DRA's founder who passed away in 2016.
The CDFI Fund is one of the few bipartisan solutions agreed upon by industry and consumer advocates. In a recent hearing on de novo institutions, Representative Keith Ellison spoke eloqunetly about the need for the continued existence of the CDFI Fund.
The CDFI Fund provides a critical influx of resources to rural America, as many communities lack access to basic financial services due to low population density and high poverty rates. President Trump's proposal to eliminate the $233 million CDFI Fund will disproportionately hurt the red states that carried him to victory in the 2016 election.
Fast Company provides a compelling overview of the CDFI Fund's role as an effective public-private partnership addressing critical economic development challenges. As Ellis Carr, CEO of Capital Impact Partners, a nonprofit CDFI loan fund, shared, "With the current administration, some of the sound bites you hear are around the forgotten man or the forgotten people. CDFIs have been doing this work for 30 years - we've been working with that forgotten population all along."
Proposed Elimination of US Treasury Community Development Finance Fund will close off economic opportunity for millions of hardworking people in America’s hardest hit communities.